The present-day U.S. military qualifies by any measure as highly professional, much more so than its Cold War predecessor. Yet the purpose of today’s professionals is not to preserve peace but to fight unending wars in distant places. Intoxicated by a post-Cold War belief in its own omnipotence, the United States allowed itself to be drawn into a long series of armed conflicts, almost all of them yielding unintended consequences and imposing greater than anticipated costs. Since the end of the Cold War, U.S. forces have destroyed many targets and killed many people. Only rarely, however, have they succeeded in accomplishing their assigned political purposes. . . . [F]rom our present vantage point, it becomes apparent that the “Revolution of ‘89” did not initiate a new era of history. At most, the events of that year fostered various unhelpful illusions that impeded our capacity to recognize and respond to the forces of change that actually matter.

Andrew Bacevich


Friday, July 13, 2012

War News for Friday, July 13, 2012

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED blast in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Friday, July 13th.


Reported security incidents
#1:" An Afghan women's affairs official was killed on Friday when a bomb attached to her vehicle exploded, critically wounding her husband and daughter. "Laghman provincial women's affairs director Hanifa Safi was assassinated as a result of the explosion of a magnetic bomb attached to her vehicle," provincial police chief Abdul Rahman Sarjang told . "Her daughter and husband along with four passersby were wounded."

#2: Six persons including an Awami National Party (ANP) leader were killed while ten others injured when a blast occurred at Kuchlak Bazaar of Quetta Friday morning, Geo News reported. According to police, a blast occurred at Kuchlak Bazaar near the venue of ANP rally and was followed by intense firing that killed six persons including an ANP leader Malik Qasim and eight-year-old boy. Ten persons including ANP’s provincial president Aurangzaib Kasi and his wife were also injured in the blast.


DoD:  Spc. Sterling W. Wyatt